Blooming Rose 2018
by CreativityTheEmotion
Summary: She couldn't believe that of all the people, she was left in the dark. Now, with the situation in Gemkind radically changed, she had to find everything out and at least try and establish herself again. And for that, she had one name to unload her blame onto: Rose Quartz. AU stemming from "Jungle Moon".
1. Outdated Memories

_She gained her consciousness slowly, almost as if she were currently in a dream. Many details about the dream felt wrong, but given the nature of dreams, she could not place them together at first. All she knew was that she was in some sort of memory of her earlier life, featuring Yellow Diamond being a no-fun gem matriarch as usual and not letting her play with cool gem tech._

 _"Don't touch that!" Yellow scolded her as she grabbed her arm and pulled herself towards her._

 _"Why not? You have so many worlds and I don't even have one!" At this point, she had become so distinctly furious about her position as an authority that is not respected as an authority, she even began stomping her foot. "It's not fair! I want one! I want my own army! I want my own planet! I deserve it! I'm just as important as you!" She was going to shove it in Yellow's face as hard as she could._

 _Unfortunately, Yellow was still playing hard to get as "Then why don't you act like it, Pink?!" Even someone as thick-skulled as herself had gotten that both she and Yellow shared the same sentiment of being fed up with each other._

 _She thus stepped away from Yellow Diamond, knowing that she won't get anything from her. Yet, this unbridled rage was still boiling inside her, and she felt like she was going to burst and unleash her fury at any moment._

 _She stepped up to the nearest glass wall and punched it, not particularly caring that while her reflection seemed correct, her hand looked distinctly alien._

* * *

Pink Diamond's awakening was, to say the least, shocking even by its circumstances.

The first sound she heard while awake was that which more closely resembled members of a fusion splitting, which was confusing to say the least, as there wasn't a gem like her to be fused with without breaking at least a couple intergalactic laws. Then, her first sensation was rolling in the air, while being greeted by a dark green scenery she couldn't make heads or tails of. Soon enough after her awakening, she found herself on the floor, rolling to the nearest wall and hitting it with a thud; she considered herself lucky that those of her kind couldn't get bruises.

Pink thus quickly stood up and began wondering about just about everything, in her typical loud manner. "Where am I? How long has it been? Where is Yellow Diamond? Where is everyone?" As she said those words, she also had thoughts that were racing in her mind far too quickly, and which therefore couldn't be voiced.

Even the situation itself, once she realized it was a dream, was peculiar. While gems could sleep and dream, it wasn't expected of them to do so, given the psychedelic nature of the dreams. She still had no idea why Yellow's face in the dream was distinctly brown, or why she, in her physical body (not its reflection), felt vastly different. At this point, she simply had too many questions, and someone even with her temper realized that not all of them could be answered.

However, lost in her thoughts and voice, she didn't quite hear another voice coming from the other end of the room, across the piece of cloth hung precariously, as if someone was _trying_ to sleep. "Steven! Are you alright? What happened? Did we unfuse and wake up in the process? Hang on, gotta do something about those bruises."

Pink turned her attention to the source of the voice. In a way, it looked partly like her own form during the dream, but with the same distinctly brown shade of face. However, she was also significantly smaller and not in the right body shape to be any gem, which only made Pink freak out even more. "Agh! An alien lifeform!" she screamed as she had her arms on the wall, trying to back away from the lifeform but being unable to.

The lifeform, though, looked more curious than afraid, despite also being in pain a bit. "Who... are you?"

"Who am _I_?" This world puzzled her more and more, and the fact that even now, she didn't have the respect she wanted, did not help at all. " _I_ am Pink Diamond! The latest and greatest member of the Great Diamond Authority! I will personally make Gemkind proud! I will have my own colonies! I will have my own fleets! I... will have people respecting _me, personally!_ _You're_ an insignificant alien lifeform I should be asking the designation of!"

"Wait, Pink Diamond? Steven told me she was shattered by Rose Quartz and... where is Steven?" While Pink, herself, stepped away from the wall in order to look for this "Steven" the alien mentioned, she also couldn't help but feel she was way out of touch with the current times. She didn't know she was _shattered_. And if she _was_ shattered, what could possibly bring her back to consciousness and life?

She did feel like she vaguely remembered that name. _Rose Quartz_. Not just the facts about the gem species; she could recall that anytime too. If quartz soldiers were Gemkind's warriors, then Rose Quartz gems in particular were the battle medics, and therefore invaluable in colonizing. And that is why Pink had approached a Rose Quartz about...

...She didn't know, but it certainly _wasn't_ "oh my god, I want to die, please just end my life". Despicable. She _was_ going to capture this alien and put her somewhere where she would regret those words for as long as she lived.

"No, seriously, have you seen Steven?" The lifeform asked her again.

"Who cares about your Steven person? How about where is _Yellow Diamond_?" This lifeform was almost as infuriating to Pink as... basically every other gem. "Where is Homeworld? Where... are we?" Though, Pink also took this as an opportunity to approach the lifeform, and found out that she was roughly half Pink's height.

"Hey, Pink Diamond, calm down." The lifeform attempted some sort of pacifying procedure that Pink was completely unfamiliar with. Even then, she seemed to be fairly bad at it. "Like, I'm not good at talking things through like Steven, but I'm still sure we can work together and..."

"Work... together." It was almost as if Pink was so furious, it just looped back again to her looking calm. She took a few deep breaths, even though gems didn't really need to breathe and...

...something was wrong with her body.

Well, she still had the appearance modifiers that were attached to her as seen in the reflection, not her actual form. Yet, her skin was a bit more orange than pink, and she felt the distinct fatigue that came with lifeforms other than gems needing "sleep" and "air". Even worse, when touching her face, she felt strands of some sort of organic compound growing on her, like a tiny little patch of trees.

It was nothing she couldn't fix, though. With a swift concentration of thought, Pink's face glowed, and when it stopped glowing, not only did the strands disappear, but another area of her body was affected, almost unexpectedly; it was between her legs, and it felt as if something fairly large and obnoxious disappeared from there. "Why didn't anyone tell me any of this?!" she shouted, partly into the void, partly so that the other lifeform could hear her and know that she was still furious as she was throughout the dream and after it.

She couldn't care less about the peculiarity of her new form, though. What she needed to know was how to know the working order of Gemkind today, and how to assert herself again, considering that a sizable amount of time must have passed in order for her to become... what was the word for it? Oh, right, _suicidal_.

"Oh, wow. Pink Diamond. I guess I might actually hear another side of the tale!" For some reason, the lifeform was getting excited. "So? Are you a horrible tyrant like everyone told us you are?"

"Does it look like _I_ know?" Pink was getting more and more infuriated by no one in her vicinity - and by that she meant not the alien lifeform - being helpful and letting her figure out what was going on.

But maybe, just maybe, Pink needed to gain the lifeform's trust. "So, looks like I'm somewhere between a nobody and a tyrant. Well, that's fine, I just need to remedy my reputation, and that means approaching you politely. How do you call yourself?"

"What is my name, you mean?" The lifeform asked, chuckling, before answering: "Connie. Connie Maheswaran."

"Very well, Connie. Is it alright if I only refer you by the first part?" Pink asked.

"You... you don't know anything about human culture, do you?" Connie asked in return, realizing that Pink was confused.

And boy, was Pink confused. The mention of the words "human" and "culture" literally just made her remember what humans were in the first place; they were those strange aliens on a distant planet that was observed by Gemkind, but for which only plans for a colony existed. Though, last she heard from reports, humans were fairly primitive, and their clothing did not look nearly as lavish as Connie's did.

"...No." Soon enough, Pink had realized that anger was getting her nowhere, and summarized her inner turmoil with a single word, before continuing: "How did colonization of your planet go? How come you exist alongside gems?"

"Colonization... you mean the Gem War, right? The one where you got shattered and..."

"I'm sorry." At this point, Pink's fury was straight up laughable, and the humor did not escape her either, so she chuckled. "How much of history have I missed again?"

"Five thousand years? I think. Earth units; you might use something else. I guess... roughly half of a period between ice ages?"

" _That much._ " Pink went from joking to shocked once again. This entire experience since her gaining consciousness again, including the conversation with the Connie alien, was nothing but a huge mood whiplash. "Well, that would explain why I can't recognize this... this is a standard issue diamond base, but because it's overgrown after so long, I can't recognize _anything_." Suddenly, without warning, Pink located some stairs and stormed upwards; Connie was trying to catch up at first, but after a few seconds, began panting; while Pink felt like she would disagree, she certainly felt _something_ after such a long upstairs trek.

But luckily for her, the technology used by herself and Yellow five thousand years (plus something) ago was still intact and functional. The upper level itself brought her countless memories, including the one she dreamt about; she even recognized the glass wall she had broken, which no one ever had bothered to fix after all this time. The memories after that one were blurry, though.

That didn't matter to her now. What mattered to her was that she knew the passcode to unlock this system, and with one swift swipe of her not-as-pink-as-she-would-like-but-still-pink-enough-to-count hand, she would contact Yellow, would get intel on everything she missed out on and forgot and would be back in business in no time.

At least, that was the plan, which had to be put on hold as a corrupted gem attacked the location of Pink and Connie. Pink, though, knew better than to be outsmarted by an animalistic creature, and surely enough, she spawned her curved decapitator - her trademark weapon embedded within her gemstone - and soon enough, the creature lost mobility and poofed, leaving behind a gem which, when it regenerated, would not find Pink nor Connie, because Pink would be back home (whatever she had that would pass for a home, be it on Homeworld or in a spaceship in deep space) and Connie would be exterminated at the other Diamonds' (and maybe even Pink's) direction.

Pink's plan, as it was originally conceived, at first mostly worked out, as she entered the password on the system and accessed it. Unfortunately, the system was updated since her last memory, and she misclicked and instead of the distinct hairdo of Yellow, another alien lifeform appeared. Though, much to Pink's disbelief, this one appeared to be more pink than herself, almost as if...

...almost as if she was brought upon by Pink's own powers.

The lifeform thus talked frantically. "Who are you? Where are Steven and Connie... or their fusion?"

"I'm here, Lars!" Connie shouted in the vague direction of the screen, still panting. "Can't find Steven, though. All that there is is this weird gem, with the same gemstone and placement as Steven's, but claiming she is Pink Diamond, whoever that is."

"Steven?" Lars, as she was identified, asked Pink. "Is this another one of your dumb tricks?" She got mad, but then calmed down. "I'm getting you back home and then you're _never_ going on a space mission again. You are nothing but trouble. Just you wait, I'll bring you back to Earth." As Lars's projection disappeared, Pink spotted a spaceship, of a shape completely unfamiliar to her, approach and crash through the glass cage doming the top floor of the base. Then, Lars, as clear as she was on the screen, stepped out, and Connie pulled Pink towards her.

"Come on, Pink! I'll show you the Earth! You gotta see the Earth and how humans have developed." Connie said excitedly, as she was ready to step up and jump into Lars's... hair?

"No, Connie. You fix Steven this instant and only _then_ you can come back home. He's just being space sick or something he made up." Of all the words to be unfamiliar to Pink, she didn't expect it to be a _pronoun_ , and yet, there it was: "he" was one of those newfangled words made up since her last memory.

This, along with the insistence that _Pink_ was Steven of all people, infuriated her to no end, and she blew up again. "For the last time, I am Pink Diamond and I will not be brought down by someone like _you!_ " She decked Lars right in the face, knocking her out, and then cautiously stepped into his hair, copying what Connie was attempting to do.

"Yup, definitely one of my powers." Pink said as her foot disappeared in the hair of the more pink lifeform, and soon enough, she jumped in in her entirety. The realm within Lars and, as it appeared, another lifeform was converted in a similar way, and as she presumed, the two created a portal between her former location and wherever "Earth" was. She thus swiftly walked over to the other pink island and jumped out, landing on a completely different kind of architecture, appearing to be some sort of balcony out to an alien planet completely different from the one she was on, but also having a primitive door to the interior of the building she was right next to.

Soon enough, Connie followed up on Pink's feat, but seemingly was maddened herself. "What was that, Pink? You can't just deck people you don't like! Lars is my friend! Lars is _Steven's_ friend!"

" _Why is Steven so important to you?!_ " Pink looked back at Connie with all her fury, before storming off to the door, which was clearly too small for her. Luckily, Pink was nothing if not an adept gem with a superior experience in all gem-related activities, and therefore, she could simply shapeshift a smaller form to get through the door, open it, step in, return to her original form and slam the door right in Connie's face. Then, though, Pink noticed a primitive lock system attached to the door, which worked rather mechanically, and slammed that, locking the door and making Connie bang on it.

Connie didn't matter to her. What mattered to her was what sort of situation she was thrust into, as well as the portrait of... whoever this was.

Another thing Pink remembered about Rose Quartz gems was that, if oriented rightly, they looked just like her gem, if oriented wrongly. This depiction of a Rose Quartz specimen reminded her of that, and in addition, made her inspect her own naval gemstone and...

"Oh dear. Oh no. No, no, no, no, _no!_ This can't be happening!" Pink exclaimed as she realized what was going on: her own gemstone now was oriented wrongly and she could easily be mistaken for a Rose Quartz.

What Pink didn't realize, though, was that Connie was still banging on the now locked primitive door. "Steven - Pink Diamond - whichever you are now, this isn't funny! You need to apologize!" She was _so_ not having this conversation, and stepped through the house, noticing a warp pad and hoping that she could warp while running and get somewhere safe.

However, the emotional turmoil inside her worked against her. She failed to warp, and out of full inertia, slammed into another door, this time more sophisticated and gem-like. Then, out of pure shock from everything, not in the least the physical brunt, she passed out.

* * *

 _Seeing pink clouds immediately made Pink feel at home, in her own safe space away from everything else. Now,_ this _was what she expected from dreams; being able to think stuff through and act calmly, even if the conditions made her look mad all the time and be considered a brat by others. In addition, her own form, with the pointy thing pointing upward rather than inward, brought her even more inner peace._

 _It was in this realm where Pink could overthink everything. How she was going to deal with Connie, and perhaps even Lars. How she was going to get her reconaissance on everything. How she was going to assert herself as a member of the Great Diamond Authority again. And most importantly, how she was going to figure out everything about Steven and whatever "he" word that lifeform used._

 _"Hey!" a distinctly annoying voice rang through Pink's realm as she was thinking that, even though she was sure that no other person could be here. Not only that, but when Pink looked at... whatever the object form of "he" was, he also had the same Rose-Quartz-but-not-quite gem, but pointing inward, and he was about as tall as Connie. "Are you... Pink Diamond? What are you doing here?" he - Pink was pretty sure that this was the Steven that Connie and Lars were referring to - asked her._

 _"Oh, you know, just minding my own business in my own mind and trying_ not _to be interrupted by invaders from_ within. _What is this? Why am I... Is there_ seriously _another being occupying my gemstone? How is that possible? Did I... become you somehow? I... I'm completely at a loss here." Pink asked, trying to get_ something _out of the person._

 _"Wait, does that mean..._ you're _my mom? Not Rose Quartz?" Steven asked._

 _"Rose Quartz. I will curse that name for as long as I live." Pink said ominously, as she was ignoring Steven and concocting yet another plan to put this entire debacle to rest. She still didn't know what the big deal with a particular Rose Quartz specimen was, but she was surely going to figure out in the process._

* * *

 _Author's idiotisms: So, there you have it. My new fic based on The Brand New Rose Quartz Is Pink Diamond Theory. The old one, which I'll call Blooming Rose 2015 from now on, pretty much had its core theory debunked over and over again, but the theorists have still come up with something to restore the old "Rose is Pink" glory, and honestly, I couldn't be more glad, even if_ this _is going to be debunked eventually._


	2. Unwarranted Assault

After observing the strange behavior of Pink Diamond, concluding with her slamming to the magical door at full force and passing out, Connie couldn't help but feel conflicted. After all, there was still no trace of Steven, but if he was okay, even if he took a moment to wake up, he could find Lars, step through him and be on the Earth as if no dangerous space mission had ever happened.

Yet... Pink Diamond, known to be an enemy of the Crystal Gems, was around.

As that thought entered her mind, Connie stopped in her tracks, having stepped down all the stairs of Steven's house and being on the beach, on the way to the nearest drivable street, where she would call her parents and tell them to pick her up.

She couldn't do that, though. If she took action... if she shattered that despicable gem herself, she could gain unprecedented reputation among the Crystal Gems. Everyone would tell her how she has proved her worth, and she would have successfully done _something_ in order to protect her planet. After all, she had a fair amount of sword practice and...

...Rose's sword.

In a rush to follow Pink Diamond around, Connie had completely forgotten about the sword, and now, it was just lying god-knows-where in space, forgotten, alongside her backpack. There was nothing to worry about, though; she was going to get it and attack her with what Rose probably already used in a fight with her.

Despite being tired of all the running she did already, Connie rushed back up to the porch of Steven's house and stepped into Lion's mane.

* * *

"I foresee that Lars is going to be assaulted! How terrible!" Padparadscha commented as she stepped out of the Sun Incinerator.

As the assault happened and both Connie and Pink Diamond escaped, alongside Padparadscha, Rhodonite and the Rutile twins also exited the spaceship that they, as of fairly recently, called home in order to witness the aftermath of an assault on their leader. Now, during his limited time as a space pirate, Lars had made his name by irritating other gems and eventually, such an event was to be expected, but nevertheless, the Off Colors were surprised that it happened for the first time. In addition, what they had learned of their society, with Pink Diamond being shattered and all, clearly contradicted what they saw through screens, with her being alive and well.

"What do we do? I wasn't ready for this!" Rhodonite called out once she was aware of the full gravity of the situation.

The Rutiles merely glanced at each other, worried just as much as Rhodonite was. "I can't take the lead!" "Well, I can't take the lead either!" they said to each other.

"I predict that my remaining teammates will be worried! But don't worry, everything is under control!" As Padparadscha said that, the Rutiles and Rhodonite both looked at her. "We simply have to bring Lars into the ship and remain on the ground until he can take up controls!"

"And what of the portal? Pink Diamond is on the loose! Diamonds don't act like that! They respect those who are on shatter row too!" Rhodonite asked.

"Don't worry, Pink Diamond won't be coming from there as we're talking! That, or any other surprising arrival from Lars's hair, would be unfortunate!" Padparadscha responded.

As she said so, though, Connie jumped out of Lars's hair and headed downward to where she was sleeping. Rhodonite glanced at Connie, then at the Rutiles, who were only looking at each other.

"Okay, I predict someone will be stepping out of Lars's hair. But it's okay! She's friendly! She's not going to harm us!" Padparadscha corrected herself. Soon enough, Connie ran back up, carrying Rose's scabbard and sword in her hands and with her backpack on her back, and, heavily panting, stepped back into Lars's hair, disappearing from the Off Colors' sight.

"See? She is not going to be of harm! She will simply realize she's forgotten something, go to pick it up and return without doing us any harm!" Padparadscha, still blissfully unaware of the distinction between the past and the future, reassured her teammates in the best way she could.

"What do you say?" One of the Rutiles asked her twin. "Well, she didn't come right now, so..." "Yeah, there's nothing to worry about!"

"If you say so!" Rhodonite thus picked up Lars by his head, while each of the Rutiles took one of his feet, and the Off Colors thus brought their leader inside. As Padparadscha followed them, Rhodonite and the Rutiles laid Lars down, and finally, Rhodonite closed the door of the Sun Incinerator, so that nothing could happen to them while they were stationary.

Fluorite, though, who had stayed inside to guard the ship, had a multitude of thoughts, unable to form a consistent opinion, but knowing that if Pink Diamond, known to have been shattered, was suddenly alive and kicking, that could possibly mean many bad things.

* * *

 _"What do you have against my mom?" Steven asked, trying to be at least some sort of friends with Pink Diamond._

 _Yet, it would seem that she was still not thinking clearly. "What's a mom?" she asked in return._

 _"Oh. Well, a mom is someone who creates you and once you are born, cares for you and..." As Steven tried to explain human concepts to a gem who was unfamiliar with them, he stumbled once he remembered his own experiences. "Well, mine was never really around since she turned into me and told me she would live within me, but now you're here, in the same gem! Wouldn't that mean something?"_

 _"Nothing you said means anything to me." Pink scoffed as she turned her back to Steven and crossed her arms._

 _"No, but seriously, I am a bit confused. I thought I would meet Rose Quartz here; she's my mom and that's what I saw on at least two video tapes. And she looks nothing like you." Steven was still determined to ge something out of Pink, even as everything the Crystal Gems had told him was completely turned upside down by his current experience._

 _His... current experience. Last he remembered, he was with Lars on his cool spaceship and agreed to fuse with Connie for their mission, and even his experience as Stevonnie was a blur, but as far as he concerned, after Stevonnie had that strange dream with Connie's mom, his next memory was him being right here, in his gem space, so to speak._

 _As he was thinking, Pink answered: "Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out too. How come everyone believes I'm shattered and Rose is hailed as a hero with her portrait and everything."_

 _Well, if it was how Rose was revered, Steven could answer, to an extent. "Haha, well, it's mostly Pearl who talks about how she was perfect and how she lead everyone to victory. Others, not so much."_

 _"_ Whose _Pearl?" Pink asked._

 _"Who's Pearl? Well, she is a Crystal Gem that..."_

 _"Ugh..." Pink groaned over being misunderstood. "Who does the Pearl you mentioned belong to?"_

 _"Uh... no one? She feels pretty strongly about being independent." Steven tried to remember._

 _"And yet, she talks about how this Rose Quartz specimen was so great. Like, let's establish some ground rules first. Since you're in this gem, that means Rose was here, too?"_

 _"Um, yeah? I think. I have some of her powers." Steven answered in the best way he could._

 _"But then, it's like... I'm here." Pink tried to reason._

 _"Yes...?"_

 _"Meaning, people mistook me for Rose for at least some time, and since I can't remember anything from the last five thousand years or whatever, there was a whole identity takeover."_

 _"I'm... maybe you want to talk to someone else about this. Pearl would probably know; she's been close with my mom... you?"_

 _"...Fair enough. That's a plan." Pink realized that until her amnesia was cured, she wasn't getting anything from sources within her own gemstone._

 _"So, until you meet her, is there anything else you want to do?" Steven asked._

 _"No, I'm good." Pink let her thoughts drift away, knowing that in a dreamlike state, she would get completely lost, and the next thing she knew, she would wake up._

* * *

Pink woke up to the sound of the warp pad she had completely failed to use activating. She thus quickly stood up, being ready to see if this was a Pearl.

Unfortunately, even at a first glance, the person on the pad looked nothing like a Pearl, or any gem type known to her, for that matter. Instead, she was slightly taller than a Pearl, being roughly Pink's height, had blocky dark hair and a curvy body with a distinctly large chest and hips. Oh, and brown skin. In addition, rather than a diamond, the key element of her wardrobe was zig-zagging and it was hard to tell what it would have completed. Was this another member of Connie's species? They did seem to come in brown and have their own sense of fashion.

Though, once the person turned herself to Pink, she recognized what she was looking at much quicker. "Pink Diamond." As she said that through gritted teeth, a pair of gloves appeared on her hands; to Pink, this was strange for alien lifeforms, but was explainable if the person was a gem.

"Yes. You got it right! You got it right. Now, you wouldn't know how to properly respect a diamond, would you?" Pink nervously asked, as she realized that the person, due to whatever she did, was meaning harm.

"I have no respect for anyone who would forcefully separate me whenever she got the chance." The person said, punching both of her gloved hands together, her right fist in her left palm. While this scared Pink even more, she was also a bit confused; what did she mean by separation?

"Wait, what?" Pink asked, deciding that if her confusion surfaced, the other gem would also be put off-guard.

* * *

 _Inside Garnet, Sapphire reported: "She doesn't remember any of the crimes she did. Maybe it's wrong to assault her like this."_

 _"Are you serious? That is going to stop you? We could shatter her right then and there; do what Rose couldn't do and earn our name as the leader of the Crystal Gems!" Ruby retorted._

 _Given that Ruby was the only thing she couldn't predict, Sapphire was conflicted. In a flash, many different futures entered her mind in order to resolve the division, and for that moment, it wasn't clear what she waas going to relay to the fusion._

 _Finally, Sapphire declared: "Fine."_

* * *

For the few moments while the other gem remained silent, Pink was formulating her strategy. She knew that her current position was laughably disadvantageous, with the only thing behind her being a mysterious wall with a five-pointed star on it.

Yet, once the person began groaning and lunged at her, Pink knew exactly what to do. She leapt up in the air, pushed herself away from the wall using the stones above the door, and perfectly landed on both of her feet in the middle of the alien room. In the process, she also summoned her weapon; though, she knew that this time, it was better to use it in its defensive form, that is, as a shield.

Once the person turned herself to punch Pink in her new position, though, her attention was caught by the shield, especially as the picture of Rose was right there, above Pink as seen by her.

* * *

 _"I'll admit, I didn't see what I see now." Sapphire realized._

 _"And what is it now?" Ruby was having none of her fusion couple._

 _"Look at Pink Diamond more closely."_

 _"No. I don't care about her until she's shattered." Ruby was going to have her way._

 _"To begin with, her gemstone is turned inside her body in such a way that it looks identical to Rose's gemstone. Right there, on the picture. Can't you see?"_

 _Reluctantly, Garnet's Ruby eyes looked upwards to Rose's belly as painted by Vidalia, and then downwards to Pink's belly as she was standing. Ruby did agree; not only was the gemstone spot-on, but Rose and Pink looked fairly similar stature-wise, even if Pink had less body weight._

 _"Not to mention, the shield might not have the same pattern as Rose's, but it has the same shape. Don't you think something is fishy here?" Sapphire attempted to convince Ruby._

 _"Well, we didn't see her summon that. It might not be her weapon, it might just be an object in her gemstone." Ruby held out for as long as she could._

 _"Now that I'm aware of these details, the best course of action is to interrogate Pink Diamond before we do anything reckless. Do you agree?"_

 _"Alright. Have it your way. Be my guest and ruin everything!" Ruby internally shouted as she relinquished control of Garnet to Sapphire._

* * *

"...I'm sorry." The person said as her gloves disappeared, and with them out of the way, Pink knew that no one was going to attack her in the immediate future, so soon enough, her shield dissipated as well. In addition, though, the diamond noticed each of the person's hands had a gemstone on it.

"Wait, you're a fusion?" Pink asked.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I'm worth anything less than someone with one gemstone." The person answered, maintaining her original position.

"Whatever. I'm sure that without me, Gemkind has become absolutely degenerate." Pink had to get used to crossing her arms a lot.

"Don't worry, Pink Diamond. I'm sure you would like Gemkind as it exists now. They're fighting for you, even if you're not there to lead armies; isn't that adorable in and of itself?" The person finally gave Pink the first piece of that sweet, sweet exposition that she wanted to hear ever since awakening in that overgrown moon.

"Yeah, cool. Can we start with the basics, though? Basics like what your name is and the likes." While random tidbits of information were okay, a structured essay on the gems' lives would have been much better.

"Oh. Sorry. It's Sapph- I mean Garnet." Wait, was she going to say...

"Sapphire?" Pink narrowed her eyes in confusion. That looked nothing like a Sapphire; for starters, she wasn't even blue.

"Nevermind that." The person, who insisted that she was Garnet, was trying to reassure her position.

"No. Always mind that. You don't just leave me with not enough information to make me go to wrong conclusions. That is the worst thing you can do with information." Pink was getting her answers, and she was getting them now.

"Alright, fine. I am a fusion of a Sapphire and a Ruby, but I have been fused for so long that I have forged my own identity." Garnet asserted.

Pink, at least for now, was satisfied with Garnet's answer. "Now, you said people are fighting for me, yet you were fighting against me. What's up with that?" she asked.

"Hmm. I don't know. How about we begin with the fact that _you tried to make a planet with intelligent life devoid of such life?_ " Was the Sapphire losing control to the Ruby? Fusions, even the limited ones of the same type of gem, were a complete mystery to Pink.

"I mean, yeah, Connie did seem pretty intelligent, but do you seriously think her kind is on par with the likes of us?" Pink did some reassuring, but quickly after saying that, realized that she, herself, had made a tactical mistake and making the Ruby, and by extension, Garnet more angry.

" _All_ life is worth protecting." Garnet simply said, as if that was objective truth.

"You know what? Sure. Whatever you say. Just don't get mad at me again." Finally, Pink had realized that Garnet did not see her on the high horse she saw herself on.

"You know, you don't act like a diamond." Garnet made her observation after the brief chat with Pink.

"Why not?" Pink wanted to hear Garnet out.

"Diamonds, at least from my experiences in the war, were completely immovable. Even you, as I remember you, were ruthless and would stop at nothing to get what you wanted. Now, it's almost as if you don't remember being a devious authority, and instead, are a devious commoner ready to weasel her way into a position of power." At first, Pink didn't notice, but now, she definitely thought it was weird that the longer Garnet went on, the more trouble she had voicing each word.

Nevertheless, that was a fair observation, and Pink was ready to answer. "You're right! You're absolutely right. I am fairly young as a diamond, and no one - especially not Yellow - treats me seriously. But trust me when I say that I will get my own colonies, I will get the respect that I deserve and I _will_ be treated as an equal among the greatest Gemkind has to offer!" Pink extended one of her arms upwards to show her vision, a bright one she was committed to realizing.

"You sure did, Pink Diamond. You sure did." Garnet only nodded.

"...How much don't I remember, anyway?" Pink wondered to herself.

* * *

After stepping back on the Earth, though, Connie was definitely getting a rest. To attack Pink Diamond, she would need to be in her best shape, and right now, given how much she had to run since she awoke, she wasn't going to leave a scratch on that gemstone.

But once she did...

But once she did, she was going to get revenge on Rose's old enemy, in the name of her son, and become a true, respected Crystal Gem.

Connie thus sat down on the lowest step of Steven's house's staircase so Pink Diamond wouldn't notice her coming, and began playing Soda Smash on her smartphone.

Usually, she didn't care about such games, and was disappointed to discover there was no way to delete it from her phone, but right now, it was almost as if this was the perfect time killer to let her strengths return. Despite her feelings about both Pink Diamond and the game, she got fairly engrossed, and only once about twenty minutes passed, she suddenly remembered why she was still around here.

Connie thus turned off the game, dropped her smartphone into her backpack, unsheathed Rose's sword and stepped back up to Steven's door, ready to tackle the millennia-long issue concerning Gemkind and the Earth alike once and for all.

* * *

 _Author's idiotisms: Just in case you are wondering, my thoughts on the premise are on my Steven Universe blog; look up "Royal to Rebel" on stiveno-visata. I will not be accepting questions based on that, since I don't want to accidentally reveal spoilers beyond what I think is obvious._

 _Anyway... well. That was a bit of a mood whiplash, especially since it concerned so many different characters with different positions on everything. And that's still not nearly everyone. The cast of SU sure has expanded since 2015._


	3. Buried Secrets

_Author's idiotisms: Sorry for rushing into conclusions about this fic needing to be canceled. I'm sure the recent episodes have left you shaken as well, and I might have been unable to think properly myself. Rest assured, though, that I have re-read the first two chapters and I think I can work them into the canon that has been revealed. The fic will have to be a lot shorter than I originally planned, though._

* * *

As Garnet and Pink Diamond both pondered the question that the latter had just posed, Connie burst in, holding some sort of pink sword. Pink turned around at the sound of the door opening, and knew exactly what was coming.

By now, she did remember Connie, and that she was a threat. As the human lifeform lunged towards her, Pink once again took out her gem weapon, but this time positioned defensively, like a shield. Pink's shield thus intersected with Connie's sword briefly, launching the sword into the air, making it impale the ceiling. Pink then gave a quick glance at the sword, and immediately recognized its patterns.

Beholding this, Pink thus laughed maniacally. "Trying to use my own weapon against me! Simply brilliant. It seems that both sides of this war have been absolutely vicious against each other." Pink's attention then was diverted away from the sword and back to the nearby Rose Quartz portrait. "If this is what _you_ can do, then this Rose Quartz specimen must have something absolutely astonishing up her sleeves!"

"Yeah, she does, and it's called love and compassion!" Connie shouted back. "Something which you may never have!"

"Maybe." Pink simply nodded, then reached up, taking the sword and storing it in her own gem inventory. "Not that it's particularly relevant in establishing a colony. Yellow told me all about colonies!" She then suddenly felt dejected. "Mostly that I can't have one."

" _Because_ when you do, it causes an uprising." Garnet finally commented on the clash between Connie and Pink.

"Ugh! Again with the uprising! I could squash any uprising with my bare feet! Apparently, all of you can't even shatter me or whatever!" Pink, once again, stomped her foot, acting more like a mistreated child than a revered royal.

"Pink Diamond, I-" Before Connie could finish that sentence, Pink groaned again and was ready to storm off in whichever direction, but found herself in a strategically unfavorable situation, with Connie and Garnet blocking her from either side. With not much choice, Pink began walking in a small circle in the middle of the human house, desperately looking for something. "You know what else I want?! I want you to leave me alone until I can find the Pearl who can resolve this mess!"

Unbeknownst to Pink, the door she had slammed into previously activated. The star-shaped pattern on it now had one part of it glowing in pink, and Pink, knowing this was her opportunity, leaped over Garnet and through the door, opening it in a rose-like pattern, then stepped through and closed it from the other side just as swiftly.

Garnet, though, was left completely puzzled. "But it can't- The door only activates when a Crystal Gem- Rose Quartz can't possibly be-"

Connie, on the other hand, had her own set of conclusions. "If that was Steven's gemstone, Pink Diamond is essentially holding him hostage. Completely unacceptable!"

"Either way, we're in this together, and we'll get to the bottom of it." Garnet reassured Connie.

* * *

Pink Diamond was greeted by the same cloud landscape that she saw in the previous dream. However, this time, she knew it wasn't anything like an experience within her own gemstone, and relished every moment of it.

"And you know what I also want?" Pink screamed into the pale void, almost straining her newfound organic vocal cords. "I want the truth to be told, right now!"

And it would seem the pale void responded. "The truth." The voice of the pale void, it seemed, sounded just like Pink herself, if she were permanently calm.

"Yes, cloudscape, the truth. What do you believe? That I was shattered, like everyone else thinks I am? I mean, you let me in based on my gem cut, which wouldn't make sense if I _were_ shattered..." Pink decided to try and reason with the voice she just heard.

Unfortunately, though, the void did not respond, and Pink groaned to herself once again. "Great. Now I'm talking to myself, and another part of me tried to surface by simply saying "the truth" without realizing what the truth actually entails. It's almost as if it interpreted what I said literally!"

As she shouted that last sentence, though, she came to a realization. She muttered to herself: "I want... hmm... yeah, I did say I want..." She then tried to regain her composition as she spoke into the sentient-yet-literal void, making a wish, so to say: "I want my own army."

Suddenly, the clouds started forming apparitions, each one coming to be visible in a puff and becoming a light construct, like Pink's former form. The apparitions were humanoid with pink hair, and were pretty much identical. At first, Pink thought that those were copies of herself, but upon closer inspection, they looked to be more like the Rose Quartz picture in the human house.

But even then, the differences between Rose Quartz (or as much as Pink knew of her) and the apparitions were obvious. These were dressed more like soldiers, meaning no poofy dresses that would obstruct the movement of one's legs, or worse, make one topple. In addition, while _the_ Rose Quartz, just as Pink, had her gem in the belly, these soldiers had their gems at different locations on their bodies, making them look like an army of any other Gem type.

"Cool!" Pink Diamond finally felt genuine glee for once since awakening thousands of years later. "And these are all Rose Quartz soldiers, made for me?" she asked the void.

The soldier nearest Pink only faced her and nodded.

"Haha! Hey! Cloudscape! I want my own planet!" Pink screamed again, and suddenly, the entire landscape grew dark, with the only objects remaining on it being Pink, the soldiers and a blue and green planet that appeared right above their heads, no further than a radius and a quarter away. As Pink looked up, her eyes traced the borders of the continents to the curved horizon; the soldiers, though, remained in their unwavering statures.

"You're the coolest Diamond mom I've ever had, cloudscape, you know that? Yellow would never let me have either of those things." At this point, Pink didn't even care if the room, in and of itself, was a sentient being; it was like a dream come true.

Pink thus ran past the soldiers, with them automatically moving out of the way so as to not collide with her, and began singing.

 _[Song feature: "I Want It Now" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory]_

As Pink sang, each desire of hers became a reality created by her room, with the parts that proved unnecessary simply fading away, though the soldiers and the backdrop remained, disturbing the room from its original state as pink clouds. It even seemed that the room picked up on her subconscious desires, as background music accompanied Pink's singing.

With the final lyrics, though they didn't express a particular desire, Pink raised her arms up, metaphorically greeting the entire sight. This was everything she ever wanted, and even more. If she ever came up with something new, this room would make her have it, if only in the spiritual form. She sure as hell wasn't taking these soldiers to be her own army. Not yet. Improvements needed to be done.

"Alright, cloudscape, that's enough, I want everything to disappear so I can get down to business." As Pink said this, the soldiers and the backdrop poofed away, and the room returned to its original state which she had found it in: pink clouds.

Then, Pink remembered who she was searching for, and how to even begin gathering clues. "Hey, cloudscape, this might be a bit too much, but I want you to look into my gemstone and see if I have any memories of my own Pearl. The more recent, the better."

The room took a while to process it, but soon enough, a Pearl poofed into view. Pink noted two primary features of this Pearl: the oval, nearly white gemstone on her forehead and the sash around her waist, as if someone had stabbed her there for her last poofing. Pink took a mental note of both of these features, then shook the image of the Pearl away.

From the limited experience with the gemtech house, Pink understood that each of the scumbags inhabiting it, a group which apparently included herself, had her own metaphysical room, which only she could enter. Therefore, even if Pearl was in her room, Pink couldn't just barge in, and would have to wait in the common space. Pink thus finally declared: "That's enough, cloudscape, I want to go out of here and into the common space."

A door just like the one she had entered originally appeared. However, when looking outside, Pink only saw who she had left; namely, Connie and the fusion... she meant Garnet.

What was more suspicious than that, though, was the fact that Connie and Garnet weren't alerted to the door opening, and simply sat around idly. What was more, when Pink herself tried to step through, she found herself blocked by an invisible barrier, as if the door on the other side wasn't open at all.

Pink then tried to recall the last words she said. "Until I can find the Pearl... I got it! Until the Pearl comes to the common space, I can just be a passive observer! The cloudscape just keeps getting better and better."

Before Pink could summon a folding chair to sit in, though, a pair of Gems appeared through the door, as if they had entered another entrance that led to the same exit. While one of them was purple, shorter and of no significance to Pink, the other one matched the cloud apparition which she had recognized as the Pearl she was looking for.

Without further hesitation, Pink head towards the door, which now had no invisible barrier, letting her through.

* * *

At the time, Pearl thought that this was just an ordinary case of returning to Steven's house after spending some bonding time with Amethyst, who she desperately needed to connect to more. However, quickly enough, she was proven terribly wrong.

As the magical door to Amethyst's room closed, it immediately opened again, this time revealing Rose's room. However, the being who stepped out was not Rose and also was not Steven.

As Pearl remembered who this being actually was, she instinctively covered her mouth with her hands, as part of her programming. She desperately wanted to greet her own diamond, but the harder she tried to take her hands off, the harder they were stuck. Amethyst immediately took notice and went "Oh, great, P." before looking at Pink, who she didn't even recognize at all.

Amethyst then noticed Garnet and Connie, waiting around. "Hey, what are you two looking at?" she asked.

"We've been infiltrated from the inside." Garnet briefly commented, while Connie decided to remain silent and Pearl continued to cover her mouth, as if this was a topic she was not allowed to breach.

"So, anyone mind if I take this Pearl and try to talk to her in private? Thanks." Pink asked, rhetorically, knowing that the defectors would not answer positively, if at all. She then took Pearl by her elbow, brought her back into the cloudscape room and closed its door.

The absence of any other gems did not cure Pearl of her own secrets, though. She wanted to greet her diamond with open arms, but those arms were still affixed to her mouth and refused to move.

"Oh, great." Pink started talking to Pearl. "Do you always do this? I assume talking has not become out of fashion for you."

Having picked up on the completely irrelevant subject which she was not forced into secrecy about, Pearl finally took her hands off her mouth, then quickly gasped for breath. "Haha, no! Talking is all the rage here! You know that, m-" Just as she was about to greet Pink, she covered her mouth again, entering the same mental block she had previously.

"Oh, I get what's going on." Pink let all her infuriation out on Pearl. "Because I'm your diamond, I accidentally swore you to secrecy about something utterly infuriating, you know, so I wouldn't get the intel when I needed it the most, working perfectly against myself. Never fear, though, I got this. As a diamond, I henceforth unswear you from any secrecy I may have sworn you to in the past. You may talk. No one else is listening. I wouldn't be worth my gemstone if I made a cloudscape which could allow eavesdropping."

In a moment, it was almost as if an unbearable weight was lifted off Pearl. She took another gasp after freeing her mouth from her hands, then spoke, kneeling in front of Pink: " _My Diamond._ "

"Yeah, yeah, my own personal servant who I don't remember. Can you just-" Pink, though, didn't expect to be interrupted, by none other than her own Pearl.

"You look a lot smaller than you did when I last remember you."

"Yeah, I get it, this form is draining energy and therefore cannot sustain my actual size." Pink didn't know the first thing about humans,much less how one's body would work together with a gemstone, and this was baseless speculation, but thay wasn't the juicy truth she wanted to get to. "Now, can you let me through your entire life story in relation to me? I'm in a bit of a rush before my organic form's energy runs out."

Pearl took a deep breath, then spoke, almost as fast as she could, but slowly enough so that Pink could pick up on everything. "You were assigned your own Pearl around the same time as your own first colony but you fell in love with the organic life at said colony so you staged a war against the regime under the guise of Rose Quartz and eventually staged your own shattering which made the other diamonds mad so they launched a corruption wave that corrupted all of us but me, you and Garnet and then thousands of years later you fell in love with a human and had a baby and transformed into him and now Steven has all the burdens of your legacy." She even finished the spiel with the diamond salute, crossing her arms and twisting her wrists so that they would form a diamond shape.

While Pink could hear every word individually perfectly, though, she couldn't piece any of them into a coherent thought. "Whoa, whoa. Alright, my mistake, I shouldn't have rushed into this. You mentioned a Rose Quartz. What was her precise involvement in this? That's what I'm trying to figure out currently."

Pearl looked at Pink, a bit confused. Not only could she not remember Steven, she couldn't remember Rose either? This was obviously Pink Diamond, and therefore, both of those things - hence why the order to stop keeping secrets worked, as well as the ability to enter her room - but she also obviously didn't remember a _lot_.

Nevertheless, it was a Pearl's job to be the informer, and the sight of Pink - although, with her gemstone turned in a way characteristic of Rose and Steven - helped her get into that role without displaying much in the way of her emotions. "Well, a particular Rose Quartz wasn't really involved - no more than the entire line of soldiers was - but you decided that you wanted to live as one."

Now, it was Pink's turn to be confused. Again. She had a lot of history of everything to learn. "Why would I do that? No, please tell me. Why would I abandon the role of a diamond?"

"Because you fell in love with the Earth's organic life." Pearl recounted her tirade. "Also, the other diamonds wouldn't see it the way you did."

Pink thought to herself for a bit. "Now that you say it, you're right. Yellow does infuriate me all the time. Good to know that doesn't just go away when I have a colony and an army." Once again, she expressed complete and utter disappointment that, outside of the cloudscape (and even inside of it, if another Gem was present, as was the case right now), the world didn't turn the way she wanted; it was only the way the other diamonds wanted.

Pearl, though, took this as an opportunity to get back the person she truly loved. " _And_ the organic life has more potential than simply using this colony for more gemstones. Right, my Diamond?"

Pink, though, had lost Pearl at this point, and instead, quickly jumped to the worst conclusion. "Wait, is this a ploy? To get me to say I'm actually Rose Quartz and that I love the Earth? I should have expected better than deception from my own Pearl."

"She's in there somewhere! I just know it, my Diamond!" Pearl began crying, seeing how immovable Pink was, just as the other Diamonds were.

"No, she's-" At first, Pink wanted to get defensive, but then, stopped to think about it for herself. "Well, I _guess_ Steven is in there, and Rose sounds like the intermediate stage between me and Steven, so she's _probably_ in there too." Pink then took a deep breath herself, and said, in all seriousness, said: "Knock me out."

"Pardon me, my Diamond?" Pearl asked.

"Deck me in the face. Once I can't pay attention to the real world due to being too weak, that's when I go to my gemstone world, and that's where I met this Steven you claim to know, despite knowing nothing about it. Maybe, just maybe, the same is true for Rose."

Pearl was thoroughly shocked. Of course, this wasn't the last time Pink asked her to harm her deliberately because of an ulterior motive, so remembering that made Pearl more courageous, and now that she remembered, she _was_ to attack a symbol of the oppression she was under, even if the character behind it had changed. Therefore, ultimately, Pearl had no difficulty landing the strongest punch she could force, straight into Pink Diamond's face.

Pink stumbled for a bit, spinning around on the room, then fell on its soft floor, knocked unconscious.

* * *

 _"Am I back? I think I'm back." Now that Pink had a vivid memory of both of them, the interior of her gemstone and her room couldn't be easily told apart. Nevertheless, the sight of Steven made her realize to check on herself, and indeed, she found her gemstone in what she tentatively labeled "the diamond orientation", meaning that this was_ her _inner world._

 _"Hey, real mom!" Steven waved from a distance. Pink thus swiftly leapt across to him._

 _"Alright, that's great, now do you know where Rose Quartz is? I... may have figured out something about myself and her."_

 _"Wh... what? I only have one mom... right? You won't find Rose Quartz here anymore." Steven was confused by Pink's request._

 _Just as both of them tried to process this realm, though, another voice was heard by both of them. Pink recognized this as the voice of the void in the real cloudscape, Steven recognized this as the voice from the tapes, and if both had any doubts about the voice, the words said in it erased all of them._

 _"Did somebody say 'Rose Quartz'?"_

* * *

 _Author's idiotisms: I mean, Pink and real Rose Quartz specimens still had encounters, but they were mostly like this:_

 _ **Pink Diamond:** ya there can only be one *bubble, rinse and repeat*_

 _Yeah, I was to cast a real Rose Quartz as the conspirator, but instead, it turned out to be a Pearl, and not just any Pearl, but the Crystal Gem. That messes up a lot of plans, but trust me, I still got this._


	4. The Mother, the Son and the Feisty Teen

_As both Pink and Steven turned towards the origin of the voice, indeed, they both saw and recognized Rose Quartz. Of course, Steven had a variety of imagery of her to go by, while Pink only really remembered the painting from the human house, but even that was enough to confirm her existing expectations and help her start building new ones._

 _As Rose approached her past and future selves and came to a distance close enough so that their sizes could compare, Pink immediately noticed something terribly off from what dared call itself "reality". Namely, Pink positively towered over Rose in this realm, whereas in "reality", when Pink's organic form was considered, it was neither taller nor shorter than the apparitions of the soldiers she wanted._

 _"Hello, Steven. Nice to finally meet you, in some form." Rose warmly greeted Steven, before turning to Pink. "Well... I suppose I should say hello to you too, Pink Diamond. It is kind of weird to see someone who is essentially myself here. A harsh reflection of the past."_

 _"And you're a pointless sapphire looking into the future, so believe me, I reciprocate the feeling." Pink even bowed to Rose, trying to be fake polite and, in the progress, completely flying in the face of the social hierarchy she had known so far._

 _"I'm..." Rose was a bit confused by being called a sapphire, but Steven understood._

 _"Oh! You mean like a crystal ball?"_

 _"What is a crystal?" Pink asked, being confused by human terminology._

 _"You probably know the word as part of the Crystal System, which is where the Earth is." Rose explained._

 _"No way!_ That's _where 'Crystal Gems' comes from?" Steven suddenly became interested in the barrage of answers he was finally going to get, from both Rose and Pink._

 _"Wait, let me get this straight. By 'Crystal Gems', you mean rebel clods, right?" After all, until she realized everything, Pink still assumed that there were essentially enemies inside her own gemstone._

 _"One at a time!" Rose did her best to calm both Steven and Pink down, even though the two were "excited" in very different ways._

 _"Yeah!" Pink nodded to herself. "One at a time! That means that there can only be one gem per gemstone, and that means you_ both _gotta go!"_

 _"That's..." Rose groaned as she facepalmed. "That's not what I meant!"_

 _"Pfft, is exactly! Is that why you shattered me? Is that it?" Pink appealed._

 _Steven looked at both the gemstone apparitions, as they began dealing rather harshly with one another. If this was the sort of frustration that Rose had kept inside of her, there was no wonder why she was such a polarizing figure, with the Crystal and Homeworld Gems having radically different opinions on her. Yet, he felt that there was no way he could interrupt them now, and there was no real need to until they pulled out their swords and attacked each other._

 _That being said... how did the cloudspace in the gemstone work, exactly? Could any of the three - Pink, Rose and Steven - be permanently gotten rid of? Didn't seem like it, because if Rose could_ actually _shatter Pink, she wouldn't need to do that cheap party trick to impress Eyeball Ruby,_ whatever _it was. The point was, there was something definitely going on, and Steven needed answers, and he wasn't getting them until he made Rose and Pink reconcile their differences._

 _Steven's awkward glances back and forth did not fail to be noticed by Rose. "Pink! You're embarrasing Steven. It is our first time meeting, for real, and he wants some questions answered."_

 _"Oh, don't worry, Rosey pal, I'm sure me and Steven are best buds! Right, Steven?" Pink gave a condescending glance downwards to Steven's petite, adolescent figure._

 _"No..." Steven could only answer. "I still don't know the_ whole _truth behind my mom; so,_ please _... won't one of you just tell me about it?" he cried._

 _"Alright!" Pink clapped. "Who should start? The latest and greatest of the Diamond Authority_ or _some out-of-shape fake quartz clod clad in sacrilegious white?"_

 _"I..." Rose sighed. "I guess I should start." She kneeled over to face Steven, eye to eye, while Pink just crossed her arms. "Steven. I know these aren't the ideal circumstances - serenely watching a tape recording of me is already a huge improvement over... this, even though you can't interact with that - but don't hesitate to take this as an opportunity to ask me anything, knowing I'll answer truthfully. Can't exactly... hide secrets in my own gemstone." Rose glanced to the side._

 _"Blah, blah, blah,_ boring! _" Pink called._

 _"Hold on, Steven." Standing up, Rose took Steven's hand and flew off, as graciously as Steven's own flying abilities, as far away from Pink as she could. He couldn't help but be amazed by the sight, and momentarily, completely forgot about Pink; it was just him and Mom, none of that shattering nonsense involved._

 _"Cool!" Steven screamed as he flew. Once he was on firm ground - or at least, as firm a ground you could call imaginary clouds in a mind realm - he asked Rose: "So, which one of you should I call mom?"_

 _"I... that's quite the hard question..." Rose pondered. "I... I suppose... whichever one makes you happy, Steven."_

 _"That's not an answer, mom! I'm here for real answers! Isn't this the single place where I can get true answers, from the actual Rose Quartz that everyone either idolizes or vilifies?" Steven asked._

 _"Steven." Rose put a finger to Steven's mouth. "A lot of questions simply don't have definitive answers. Sometimes, a question might have two answers that are both equally valid. Do you agree that is possible? Even for questions you desperately seek 'definitive' answers to?"_

 _"I... I guess it could be a thing..." Steven looked away._

 _"Which one of us is your mother? In a way... both of us, because we're the same gem. Call us whatever you wanna call us; whatever makes you happy." Rose smiled._

 _"Alright, mom!" Steven smiled back, before asking: "So, why this whole Rose thing? Why run away from who you really are?"_

 _"Going for the hard-hitting ones right away?" Rose laughed, before constructing an answer of her own. "You see, sometimes, there is no real future for you, in your current place. That is why you should always be able to reinvent yourself! Unfortunately, Gem society has some trouble with that... but that's why Earth exists! Have you ever watched organic life go through its life cycle?"_

 _"Mom, I'm only fourteen!" Steven laughed._

 _"You'll get plenty of time, don't worry. Anyway, back to your question." Rose cleared her throat. "Being a Diamond isn't exactly... the most satisfying experience. Like the royals of the Earth, we always had to be in our best possible form. We were, after all, perfect examples of the perfect Gem society... and yet, you couldn't find a family more dysfunctional than us if you tried. White was obsessed with perfection, Blue would never stop crying, Yellow would always let anger get to her and I..." Rose gave a glance at Pink, in the distance. "...was a spoiled brat."_

 _"_ Mom! _" Steven whined. "That's no way to speak of yourself!"_

 _"Exactly, Steven." Rose smiled, hoping that he finally understood. "In order to remedy myself, first I had to accept that this isn't who I was. But good luck getting around to doing anything with yourself when ninety percent of your time is sitting around on Homeworld. That's why the story only really begins after I was assigned my first colony: the Earth."_

 _Even though Pink was still at a good distance away from Steven and Rose, hearing the word "colony" made her more alerted than ever, and she was going to listen to Rose's story - hopefully a better version of Pearl's story from the waking world. She thus leapt over to Steven and Rose and quietly sat next to them._

 _"Pearl had quite the brilliant idea, I must say. Blending in with the Earth Quartzes via shapeshifting? I wish_ I _could think of something even half-brilliant."_

 _"Oh, don't worry!" Pink suddenly spoke up, giving both Steven and Rose a good scare. "I'm_ sure _you will start coming up with ideas as brilliant as mine in no time!"_

 _Rose only glared at Pink. "This is between me and Steven." she hissed._

 _"Oh, don't mind me! I'm just listening in! I have some catching up to do myself, haha!" Pink excused herself._

 _"A-alright." The towering figure of Pink didn't help the matters at all, but after closing her eyes for a while, Rose was able to pick her story up where she had left off. "So, the idea of Rose Quartz was born. And from an idea, absolutely everything else could evolve. It was a bit of wish fulfillment, I admit: while Pink was still forced to listen to her fellow Diamonds and take orders from them, even though she was frustrated with them to no end, Rose... didn't have to be. Rose could be everything Pink wasn't, and didn't even have to exist within the Diamond Authority's reach. Rose Quartz... was a terrifying renegade who answered to no one, nor did she expect anyone to answer to her."_

 _"So... what you're saying is you literally abandoned your leader post and tried to establish some wishy-washy 'no one's in charge' utopia because oh-so-terrible Diamonds wouldn't listen to you. Right? Is that the vibe I'm getting?" Pink wondered._

 _"It's not as simple as you think!" Rose hissed back, and before she knew it, the moment was, once again, between her and Pink, rather than between her and Steven. "I spent centuries pondering it, long before I even started a war."_

 _"Started a war... against yourself? Why?" Pink asked._

 _"Not against myself! Against the_ system _! Do you not understand? And do you not take your time to understand before jumping straight to questions? You're so... childish!" Rose groaned at Pink, endlessly frustrated. Was that_ really _what she was like?_

 _"Oh, I'll start a war against the system!" Pink stood up as she put a fist by her gemstone, pulling out the rather familiar sword - the one that supposedly shattered her._

 _"You've forced me to do this." Rose also stood up and unsheathed her sword, almost perfectly following Pink's moves._

 _"Guys, stop! Moms shouldn't fight!" Steven took his stand between the two, holding both of his arms against each of them._

 _"Oh, but your oh-so-precious Not-Quartz thinks that they should!" Pink maniacally laughed._

 _"Do not put your words into my mouth. That is the absolute worst that you can do." Rose gritted her teeth. "You have to admit that you represent the past here, and that means knowing that_ I _know better."_

 _"Ngh!" Steven groaned as he jumped in the air, meeting both Rose and Pink at eye level as he floated. "No! Stop! Listen to each other!"_

 _"And what's_ this _apparition doing here?" Pink appealed, pushing Steven away with her free hand, making him lose his focus on his floating and hit the ground, hurting rather badly. "Creating_ one _apparition to run away from your boring life is bad enough, but why another? And why must it be this h... h-human?"_

 _"Don't you_ dare _speak of Steven this way!" Rose lashed back at an image of everything she despised about her past._

 _"Oh, so she has a name now, doesn't she, your little pet? Is that what she is? A pet?" Pink mocked._

 _"He." Rose interrupted._

 _"Oh, right, the alternative pronouns that_ shouldn't exist! _" Pink lashed right back at Rose._

 _"No!" Steven shouted from the distance "You might have beef to settle with one another, but don't insult_ me _like that! Me! Not Rose Quartz, not Pink Diamond... me!" It was all to no avail, though, as both Pink and Rose were too far away from him to notice or listen to what he had said. Not only that, but he was too hurt from Pink's attack to even stand up; if he wanted to make some noise, he would have to crawl over to them, and the process was painfully slow, as well as painful, period._

 _"Not all lifeforms exist by the boundaries put forward by Gems. Do you understand that?" Rose appealed._

 _"Yes, and that means that those lifeforms should be eliminated! Isn't this what the Diamonds fought for?" Pink asked._

 _"And this is exactly what I fought_ against _. And I'm gonna fight against it_ now! _" Rose launched forward with her own sword._

 _"Well, then! Let's fight! It's you versus me, Rose, none of this... Steven!" Pink put her own sword in a parrying position, and in a blink of an eye, the two swords finally struck each other by the blades, making a clang that made Steven, still far away and groaning in pain, realize that there was no salvaging of this situation with words anymore. Nevertheless, he still wanted to try._

 _Realizing that this was a fight for their lives, forgetting the nonexistent stakes inside a mind, both Pink and Rose took out their shields, once again perfectly matching each other. Even this early into the fight, it was clear that both Rose and Pink were made of the exact same stuff, and in order to win the battle, one of them would have to outsmart the other._

 _The two then continued fighting in their own styles. Rose graciously swept around and parried any hits that she took from Pink, while Pink moved from fighting position to fighting position like a rebellious teenager would move from the shopping aisle in a clothes store to the counter. Nevertheless, the two proved to be equals, and watching the fight gave Steven hope; if the fight lasted long enough, he would be able to step in, use all of his strength to jump upwards and stop the battle temporarily - that is, until Pink, the_ not _cool mom, pushed him away and hurt him once again._

 _Either way, Steven knew that this was a battle that neither Rose nor Pink had the right to win. It was written all over them: while Pink was still defending her cause without giving second thoughts about it, and Rose had the upper hand of having more experience... in a way, it was her fault for pursuing herself, for pursuing the cause - no matter how good it was, and no matter that the Earth was saved in the process, allowing for a being like Steven to even exist. As Steven limped, on all fours, towards the battling ladies, he knew that neither of them could win._

 _It looked like he had finally reached them - they were only ten feet away - when something terrible happened. Having slid under Pink due to her shorter stature, Rose was finally able to knock her sword out of her hand, and as Pink leaned over, as quickly as possible, to grab it, Rose hit it with her own shield, launching it into the air._

 _Pink only got a few moments to stare at her flying sword dumbfoundedly until she was faced with another groan from Rose. She defended herself with her shield, but Rose - somehow, don't ask anyone involved - was able to pierce the shield with her sword, before tossing it over to the side, flying within a hair's width of Steven's suffering form. The gust of wind did wonders to scare him, and before he knew it, he plopped onto the floor, knowing that he had lost._

 _Finally, Rose had the upper hand. She took no more precious moments, and stabbed the sword through Pink's gemstone, in a harsh repeat of the staged shattering where she had played Pink's role, while Pearl had played hers._

* * *

"THAT'S IT I DECLARE WAR ON HUMAN SLEEPING THIS INSTANT." Pink screamed as she woke up, before realizing that her face still hurt from when Pearl - her _own_ Pearl - hit her.

 _Speaking of her..._ Pink thought as she glanced around. It was a bit disorienting, given that both her own room in the Crystal Temple and her own mindscape were essentially made of the same stuff, but this was easy to orient yourself around, especially since two more copies of yourself weren't around, while all these other rebels joining a made-up cause were.

And surely enough, Pink did locate Pearl: right by her own "sleeping" corpse's side, messing around with some sticks and string. What was _that_ all for? Surely it was some weird human custom that Pink had no way of wrapping her head around. Not that it mattered, because after the episode, her mind was as clear as ever, and her intentions weren't budging anymore: she was going to use these "Rose" and "Steven" people to upset the structure of the Crystal Gems, before taking over and making the other Diamonds - wherever they were - to make up with her.

The other Diamonds couldn't have possibly been shattered as well? The Diamonds were the strongest Gems around. They must still be around, ruling Gemkind with hard light fists.

"My Diamond! That took a while!" Pearl laughed. "Oh, don't worry, I was just-"

"Nah, _you_ don't worry." Pink interrupted. "I've got at least a couple of systems to overthrow, and I'm gonna need loyal soldiers. You're loyal to me, right?"

"Yes, my Diamond." Hearing these words, Pearl instinctively did the Diamond salute; it looked like the thousands of years of being raised as "her own thing" didn't matter at all if Pink Diamond, her own Diamond and owner, was back with a snap of the fingers, just like that.

"That's a start. Let's go." Pink opened a passage way out of her own room back to the Crystal Gem base of operations, ready to face the pesky fusion and whoever was by _her_ side, fighting a made-up war.

Perhaps Pink was a hypocrite, partaking in the war against all odds. But then again, _some_ genius in her gemstone had managed to escalate it into a real war, with soldiers on both sides viciously supporting their cause. The fire had already been started; now was the time to put it out, rather than keep blaming the person who started it, especially since that person was more likely than not herself.

* * *

 _Author's idiotisms: If this is the last fanfic chapter I ever write, I want to leave you all with a_ bang _._


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